Texas Public Lands

1.9% of Texas is federal land: 3,191,777 of its 168,217,600 acres (2024 data). The largest federal land manager in Texas is the National Park Service, with 1,204,923 acres, 0.7% of the state. This guide covers 108 state parks, 13 National Park Service units, 1 national forest, 6 wilderness areas, and 20 national wildlife refuges.

Explore Texas public lands by type

Texas public land map

  • National forests
  • National parks, recreation areas and monuments (NPS)
  • National wildlife refuges (FWS)
  • State parks
  • Wilderness areas (dashed)
Land managed by (switch layers on or off)

Land ownership: USGS PAD-US 4.1, dissolved by manager and simplified (parcels under about 2 square km not shown). Unit boundaries simplified. Not for navigation or legal boundaries.

Open this area in Google Maps

List of all 148 places on this map108 state parks · 13 national parks, recreation areas and monuments (nps) · 1 national forests · 6 wilderness areas · 20 national wildlife refuges (fws)

State parks (108)

National parks, recreation areas and monuments (NPS) (13)

National forests (1)

Wilderness areas (6)

National wildlife refuges (FWS) (20)

Who manages Texas's land

Agency Acres Share of Texas
Bureau of Land Management 11,947 0%
U.S. Forest Service 756,953 0.4%
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 608,020 0.4%
National Park Service 1,204,923 0.7%
Department of Defense 609,934 0.4%
All federal land 3,191,777 1.9%

Source: Congressional Research Service, Federal Land Ownership: Overview and Data (R42346), 2024 data, checked 2026-09-30.

Camping on Texas public land

National forest

Free dispersed camping is also allowed on National Forests in Texas .

State parks

80 of Texas's state parks have developed campgrounds on record; compare them in the Texas state parks table.

Common questions

1.9% of Texas is federal land: 3,191,777 of its 168,217,600 acres (2024 data).
11,947 acres, less than 0.1% of the state (2024 data).
The largest federal land manager in Texas is the National Park Service, with 1,204,923 acres, 0.7% of the state.
This guide lists 108 Texas state parks and recreation areas, 80 of them with camping on record.

The sentences on this page are generated by software from the sourced records above, not written by hand. How this content is made.